bad questions

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Lindsey Graham: GOP isn't going to be "party of angry white guys" (+more ineffective townhall ranting) - 10/13/2009

From this: An often clamorous crowd blasted, grilled and occasionally cheered Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., in a town hall meeting Monday that centered on health care reform but returned repeatedly to his positions on climate change, judicial appointees and immigration. Graham returned the fire with a grin, at times shouting over his most boisterous critics and telling some who ques...

Jim Geraghty, Glenn Reynolds promote anti-intellectualism (10/7/09 edition; Steve Israel townhall) - 10/07/2009

Last night, Rep. Steve Israel of New York held a townhall meeting that per this consisted mainly of shouting and other anti-intellectual behavior. One question that was asked of him is provided at the link, and it isn't a good question. The smarter thing for those attending to do would be to find a few among them who are experienced with "cross-examining" people and give them some g...

Michael Chertoff grilled on CSPAN by sheer geniuses - 9/22/2009

One of these days I'm going to get CSPAN and start calling in to their interview shows in an attempt to ask politicians questions that will make them look bad. For a counter-example, a few days ago former Department of Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff made an appearance and was apparently asked a series of questions about a potential 911 conspiracy; the video is here. I haven't w...

Demagogues get wish: Jim Moran townhall "descends into chaos" - 8/25/2009

From this: Rep. Jim Moran's town hall meeting descended into chaos Tuesday night as protestors clashed -- in one case violently -- with supporters of a broad federal health care expansion, leading the 8th District Democrat to angrily seek to evict some of the loudest demonstrators. Moran and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean addressed a crowd of at least 2,500 at South Lakes High School in Rest...

Citizen challenges President Obama to stay true to progressive principles! - 8/22/2009

Welcome to the premiere edition of BYOSAK: "Build Your Own Soviet Allusion Kit". Your words today are velikiy (great, as in Peter) and grozniy (terrible, as in Ivan). Your goal: use those (or, alternatively, allusions to 1984) in relation to "Joe The Nerd: The Man Who Challenged Obama On Health Care" by Arthur Delaney of the Huffington Post (huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/21/joe-th...

NRA member "Randy the Welder" unwittingly helps Obama at Montana townhall - 8/18/2009

The video here from Obama's August 14 health care townhall in Montana shows a local welder taking around a minute to ask him a question. He first points out that he's a proud NRA member, then gives a shout-out to cable news (presumably Fox News), and then launches into an incredibly weak question. He basically wants to know how Obama is going to pay for all this stuff. That's certai...

"Becky": poster girl for unwitting supporters of Obamacare (townhall ranter) - 8/15/2009

The attached video features someone who, not knowing her real name, I'll call "Becky". Becky is helping push Obama healthcare, even if she thinks she's doing the opposite. She's not alone: all those I've seen so far who think they're opposing Obamacare are in effect either helping promote it or aren't doing as good a job to oppose it as they could. The video...

OMG! Sheila Jackson-Lee uses cell phone during a constituent's worthless rant and before useless question from another - 8/12/2009

If this were a worthless cable TV-style site, we'd be all over the video of Sheila Jackson Lee using her cellphone at a townhall while a constituent engages in a rant (video link). So, I'll leave the expected reaction to HotAir [1]. Instead, I'll point out that the video is little more than entertainment; it's not going to have an effect on much of anything. SJL's supporte...

Arlen Specter, Kathleen Sebelius meet tea party/GOP braintrust, massive intellectualism ensues - 8/04/2009

I recently posted Tea partiers meet Rep. Lloyd Doggett; grown-up high-level debate, intellectualism ensue about loons from the tea parties chanting like ACORN at that Rep.'s appearance rather than trying to engage him in debate in order to show how he's wrong (see question authority). Something similar happened recently involving an appearance to promote Obama healthcare by Arlen Specter...

How not to ask about the Obama citizenship issue (Mike Castle assumes Obama is a citizen) - 7/21/2009

Drudge is linking to this video of a townhall meeting in Delaware featuring Republican congressman Mike Castle. The "lady in red" launches into nothing more than a rant about the Obama citizenship issue and then states that Obama is a citizen of Kenya. Castle responds by saying he's a U.S. citizen. They're both wrong in similar ways: while there's a very strong possibility...

Rep. Alan Grayson pushes camera of someone trying to ask him a lame question - 6/27/2009

Glenn Reynolds links [1] to a video from Moe Lane (affiliated with RedState) [2] featuring Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson pushing the camera of someone who tried to ask him a question. There are two main aspects to this story: Grayson's actions, and the continuing stupidity of the Instapundit/RedState axis. On the video, the cameraman keeps saying, "can I ask you a question" as Grayso...

GOP still struggling with asking tough questions (Eric Cantor campaign against Dems on House floor) - 4/08/2009

Patrick O'Conner of the Politico offers "Cantor's strategy: Ambush Democrats" (link) about a plan from House Minority Whip Rep. Eric Cantor in which more experienced legislators take to the House floor to berate less-experienced Democratic House members over various issues:

Barney Frank deflects semi-tough questions - 4/07/2009

There's a recent exchange between Rep. Barney Frank and a student at Harvard University concerning TARP here. I don't have enough knowledge to tell who's telling the truth, but it's clear that Frank "won" or at least didn't lose. For over two years, I've been urging people to do things like this, albeit a bit better. Here are a few tips based on the video fo...

Obama asked stock question about immigration, gives stock, uneconomic reply (smears e-Verify; Orange County) - 3/19/2009

Earlier today, Barack Obama held a townhall in Orange County, CA and the full transcript, including the audience questions and his answers, is here. Maybe some time before the decade's over someone will get around to actually taking my advice and asking him a tough question, but that didn't happen in this case. As soon as I found out about the event, I posted here and at FreeRepublic ur...

GOP "trackers" try asking Democratic Reps. stupid questions on video - 3/17/2009

David Lightman of McClatchy Newspapers offers "GOP 'trackers' stalk Dems in hunt for 'macaca' moment" (link). The "trackers" (from the National Republican Congressional Committee) have been prowling the streets of Washington DC and trying to ask Democratic politicians questions on video. There are some videos linked from the end of the article; you can also ...

Jason Mattera asks Charlie Rangel stupid question - 3/09/2009

Standing athwart our descent into Idiocracy, HotAir correspondent Jason Mattera decided to help us descend even further by asking Charlie Rangel about his tax problems on the attached video. While the question he asked was not as bad and as personal as something that the sleazy Mike Stark has asked, it was still just a worthless question about Rangel himself rather than about things that are impor...

Change.gov Round 2: Ask Obama stupid questions, get stock responses - 1/13/2009

Barack Obama's change dot gov has released their responses for the second round of their scam where they encouraged people to submit and vote for questions that Obama would answer (change.gov/newsroom/entry/open_for_questions_round_2_response). As with other popular voting systems, it was designed to fail, with weak questions being voted up while tough questions (such as the ones I submitted)...

Obama releases "answers" to change.gov user-generated "questions" (420, dude) - 12/16/2008

Barack Obama's change dot gov recently asked the citizens to submit questions which he would deign to answer. Now, the answers to the "top" questions have been released here. The questions were weak, the answers were weak and could have been gleaned from Obama's positions. All that was predictable; see the discussion of popular voting systems. First, my question - tougher than ...

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